Bearpaw Season - Fall 2013

[Machias]

Nice job Dale, good looking cow!

[bearpaw]

Just finished the first large rump roast from my cow, we put it in a slow cooker overnight and have been eating roast sandwiches for the last several days, it is really great tasting, she was a good sized cow and will provide a lot of great meals.

My last cougar hunter cancelled and we have been waiting for the next snow storm for the next hunter to come, the weather is looking good for later next week, so I contacted the next cougar hunter, he took a new job contract for 8 weeks and has cancelled.   

Going to send out a newsletter special and try to find another cougar hunter on short notice.

[JJB11B]

how much $ we talking? Including tag and license?

[bearpaw]

6-day Cougar Hunt is normally $4950, I'll reduce it $1000 to $3950.
Idaho Sales tax is another $237, License and tag is another $360.

[JJB11B]

let me make a couple phone calls

[bearpaw]

While cougar hunting last week we found this cougar kill. It quit snowing in the early evening, a female and kitten had killed this mule deer fawn, drug it across the road and creek, and were eating it under a large fir tree. I spotted the fresh tracks in the new snow crossing the road about 6 AM, stopped the truck and got out to investigate, while I was looking at the tracks my hunter shined a light out past the tracks and spotted the cats under a tree. Daniel and I followed the tracks to the tree to investigate the kill, while we were at the kill my hunters watched the two cats circle around and come within 40 or 50 yards of us watching us as we looked at their kill, Daniel and I had no idea the cats were that close until we returned to the truck. This is all that was left of the fawn by the time we found it, it appears the two cats consumed nearly all of this small fawn in one big meal.

[bearpaw]

The Cancellation Hunt
A past hunter "Brent" decided to take the cancellation hunt I offered last week. He and two friends drove all night to get to our location. We had a good visit on their arrival got them settled and went to bed early. We got up early in the AM and headed out hunting. We found tracks of 4 females and even got to see the one female with kitten at the cougar kill, but we found no tom tracks. On day 2 we found three more female tracks but no tom tracks. We covered a ton of miles with the trucks plus we snowmobiled over 150 miles.

On day three we headed out again early in the AM. I dropped off Daniel to snowmobile two drainages and I proceeded to another drainage to check for tracks. Right off I found tom tracks that had crossed the road. I proceeded to try and figure where the tom had gone and found where he had crossed the road two more times. I made a big loop and was confident of where he was. It was a Saturday morning and I really hated to leave the area but needed to go get Daniel.

I drove to the meeting point, we loaded Daniel's snow machine and headed back to where I had found tracks. There were two more groups of doggers who had showed up to hunt in the area where we found the tom. One group had found where the tom had crossed another road (the freshest track). So we had a friendly visit and in the end my hunter "Brent" and one of the other guys agreed to flip a coin for the cat. Brent is pretty lucky and his luck was still with him, he won the coin flip. 

I called Brian who was looking for tracks in a different area and he headed our way. The other two doggers joined us for the hunt and we all set out to all have a good day on the mountain. We started the freshest track shortly after daylight, the dogs took it up on the top of the mountain into some rocks, I heard the chorus of dogs explode and the chase changed directions, we figured they jumped the cat that was likely bedded in the rocks. We snowmobiled up around the mountain to a better vantage point. Sure enough the dogs were treed down in the steep canyon below.

It was a pretty quick hike, only a half mile nearly straight down. The tom was in a big fir, we took some photos and Brent readied for the shot. The cat moved a little and exposed his chest better, Brent sent an arrow which found it's mark, the cat jumped and headed straight downhill with pups and hunters in hot pursuit. The big tom was bleeding profusely and only made it a 150 yards before piling up. As soon as the guys confirmed the cat was dead I turned my two older dogs loose who joined the excitement.

We all shared the moment and then split up for the trip out. Half the guys took the cat and headed down hill, half of us climbed back up to the snowmobiles to drive them back to the bottom to pick the other guys up. It was a great day, we made new friends, and we took a beautiful tom that tipped the scale at 145 pounds. How could life be any better, I love it when a plan comes together.

[Gringo31]

 

Beautiful Cat!!!

[bearpaw]

We started another cougar hunt today. It snowed most of the day but we found tracks of 5 cougar, but none were toms. One female had killed a mature mule deer doe which I found under a fir with low hanging limbs. I could see where she had laid by her kill before I came along, her tracks had no snow in them so I assume she was close. Most of the kill was covered by needles and such, I tried to not disturb it much so that she would come back and finish the kill. Hate to see her abandon it and have to kill another deer sooner than needed.

[pd]

Great stories, Bearpaw.

[The scout]

I would like to start by saying I love following your hunting stories and season. it seems like by passing female cats you care more about the cat's repopulating than the deer repopulating, is it purely business or is there other reason's for this. not trying to stir the pot just noticed the last two kills you found were both female cats that did it.

[irishevox]

You must find some cool sheds hunting cougars...

[bearpaw]

I would like to start by saying I love following your hunting stories and season. it seems like by passing female cats you care more about the cat's repopulating than the deer repopulating, is it purely business or is there other reason's for this. not trying to stir the pot just noticed the last two kills you found were both female cats that did it.

Very good question! 

I was asked about the same question in another topic and here is the answer I provided:
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,146879.0.html

Pardon the potentially stupid question...but why do you only take toms?

Actually a good question. Many hound hunters are very selective and choose to only shoot toms. Other hound hunters are not so selective. It's a personal choice. Most states set seasons based on the number of cougar taken and many states have annual harvest quotas so there is little chance of any population being endangered.

My personal thoughts are that it's good to harvest females from a robust cougar population to keep numbers in check. However, if a cougar population is being hunted hard then you may want to save the females. As outfitters we have chosen in recent years to only hunt toms for our hunters as they are more of a trophy for the hunter.

If we were hunting in Washington where there is very little cougar management and more cougars need to be shot then we would shoot females if someone in the hunting party wanted a female. Because there is no hound hunting season in Washington, cougar are over populated in many areas.

But in Idaho seasons are more liberal and cougars are managed much better, many hound hunters prefer to save females and only kill toms. Some hound hunters will shoot any cat, it is a personal choice. In the end the IDFG established seasons based on how many cougars are taken and recommendations from biologists. Some areas in Idaho have female quotas to prevent an overharvest of females. In my area there is a quota on females so that there cannot be an overharvest, when the quota is filled then the kill season ends. It is a choice we made to only take toms so that we are providing a higher quality hunt for our cougar hunters.

[bearpaw]

You must find some cool sheds hunting cougars...

Sometimes we do, a couple years ago one of my guides found a big 5 point elk shed that if the other side matched it would have likely scored over 300. I thought that was one of the neatest sheds we have found.

It seems that the biggest majority of cougar kills are fawns and does, we rarely find big bucks killed by cougars. I think big bucks are as elusive to cougars as they are to humans. 

[bearpaw]

It's still snowing, has dumped more than 2 feet in the mountains here. One local town had 25 inches in 24 hours. We can hardly get around even by snowmobile. Yesterday I was busting through some drifts to break trail, got stuck so many times I was exhausted by the end of the day. Today in the early AM we pulled two stranded motorists out of the ditch, then I was traveling very slowly because the drifting made the highway completely disappear, I was fine until there were no fences to judge where the highway was at, next thing I know we are in the ditch with a snowmobile trailer. Spent a couple hours digging out everything and getting back on the road. Then a couple miles up the highway I got stuck in a deep drift across the road so after we got unstuck again and got the trailer turned around we found a place to park and I snowmobiled up the highway to the hunting location. I found two more females but still no tom. We've been finding females so it's just a matter of time before a tom passes through checking on those females.